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Guys, we should definitely, definitely talk about these. Here, I’ll go first: I think it’s essential that you not let another tomato season pass without making them. I realize that you might imagine rice-stuffed tomatoes to be something unappealing. Maybe you had a cold, stomach-turning one at a buffet wedding too many years ago that its squidgy horror should still be fresh in your mind, and yet. Maybe you cannot imagine why anyone would consider rice stuffed inside a tomato to be something noteworthy, being just rice and tomatoes, possibly two of the most generic foods out there. Maybe you’re waiting to hear what I dolled these up with to make them interesting — was there bacon or cheese or caramelized onions? Did I amp it up with whole grains or kale? Maybe I cooked an egg inside, like that one time? And maybe you’re going to be disappointed when I tell you that I added nothing, just about nothing at all, and that’s the best thing about them.

I started obsessing over rice-stuffed tomatoes a year ago. At the time, I loved them because they felt to me like the essence of simple Italian and Mediterranean cooking, this idea that you don’t need to lay 16 outside flavors onto things as simple as seasonal tomatoes and plain rice to make them taste amazing. You could coax the maximum flavor out of them with seasoning, by toasting the rice, by cooking them with a tiny amount of onion and garlic in olive oil then slowly in the oven. But, at the time, I never told you about them because they made me a little sad. At the time, I was moping that the family vacation to Rome — a place I imagined did a fine job with these throughout tomato season — we’d been trying to take for as long as we’d been a family had gotten postponed again due to all of those real-life things that have the nerve to get in the way of a good time. I mean, I know that sometimes as a grown-up you don’t get to do everything that you want, but I was starting to question the point of working all of the time and spending scrupulously if it didn’t, at least every few years, lead to things we really wanted?

Who knew what a year could bring? Certainly not me. A few weeks later, my son turned three, a few weeks after that, this cookbook I wrote came out, and I spent most of the fall in and out of cities* and TV and radio stations being consumed by it. January brought a month-long nap and then in February and March I was back at it again and decided that if I could make time for 29 awesome towns in five months, maybe the 30th one could be that vacation we’d always wanted, and we made it so.

That’s not all that’s changed. A year ago, I made these for dinner, thinking that my tomato-loving, rice-loving son would go to town on them and dinner harmony would at last be achieved. I can hear all the parents reading along, laughing. Of course, he wouldn’t touch them (tomatoes and rice must be separate or they’re terrifying, obviously). This year? He ate two, then two more for lunch the next day and yet another thing that seemed daunting/impossible/frustrating a year ago became distant history. Here’s to so much more of this, eh?

* Psst: Another mini-book tour announcement is coming late this week/early next!

As I mentioned above, you could deck these out with any number of compatible ingredients — crisped bits of proscuitto, mozzarella or pecorino cheese, olives or artichokes and more! Even I couldn’t resist straying from the pure tomato-rice-and-seasonings course with a clove of garlic and few tablespoons of minced onion, as well as a starchier risotto variety of rice. But I’m telling you, it needs none of these things to be late summer dinner bliss. The rice cooks inside the most clear-noted, pure tomato sauce you’ve ever scooped onto a fork and I want August to always taste like this.

Serves 6 as a side and 3 as a main. We had these with sausages, but they’d be equally good with last week’s kale salad and/or some salumi. Or, you can do this, which is the way it is done in Rome: Peel and cube a few Yukon gold potatoes, toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper. Arrange them in the baking dish around the tomatoes and bake them simultaneously. This not only keeps the tomatoes upright, it provides a delicious accompaniment.

Prepare tomatoes: Cut the tops off the tomatoes and scoop out tomato juices, seeds and flesh into a non-reactive (i.e. just about anything but aluminum) bowl. I like to use a grapefruit knife to make the first cuts, then a spoon to remove the rest, but you can use anything you have around, being careful not to pierce the bottom of the tomatoes. Salt the cavities of the tomatoes and turn them upside down on a plate to drain.

Prepare reserve: Run scooped-out tomato flesh and juices through a food mill or pulse in a blender until coarsely pureed. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, then add 2 tablespoons olive oil, heating it too. Once hot, add onion, garlic and red pepper flakes, cooking them together for 2 minutes, or until onion begins to soften. Add rice and cook them together for about 3 minutes, or until rice toasts a little. Add tomato puree and bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low. Season with 3/4 teaspoon salt, then cover skillet with a lid, and let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until rice is par-cooked. Adjust seasoning if needed.

[If using the potatoes, as mentioned in the Notes up top, prepare them while the rice simmers.]

Reassemble tomatoes: Stir fresh herbs into tomato-rice mixture. Arrange tomatoes right-side-up in baking pan then spoon mixture into tomatoes, filling them just 7/8 of the way to leave room for the rice to finish expanding. Coat with breadcrumbs that you can drizzle lightly with olive oil, if using, or you can replace the tomato lid on each (though, do not spend 10 minutes trying to match them back up, as I did last summer. It’s pointless.)

Bake: Uncovered for 30 minutes, until tomato walls are soft and the rice inside has finished cooking. Serve hot. Repeat again tomorrow.

I am a big fan of purely tomato base risottos, however they seem to have fallen out of fashion. The use of these tomato bowl just makes it that much sweeter when you serve them. Maybe serving them with some fried gnocchi is need this weekend, thanks for the idea!

Currently suffering from a terrible cold (in AUGUST – how does this happen?) and these stuffed tomatoes sound like the most perfect comfort food. I think I might actually pull myself off of the couch to make this!

Wow! You have an amazing ability to make something seemingly simple into something delicious and hearty. I love that. I imagine these tomatoes to be somewhat of a blank canvas to which one can add sausage, shredded chicken, mushrooms, or any type of vegetable. You’ve given me endless ideas :)

These look delicious, I’ll definitely try them soon to take advantage of the lovely tomatoes before summer’s over. Recently I’ve been trying to incorporate more vegetarian meals into my diet, and this just shows they don’t have to be boring!

I actually have on my to-do list: “figure out something to do with tomatoes.” I have so many given by neighbors right now. This is absolutely, without a doubt, one hundred percent happening to them. I think the simplicity of it is the best thing about it. Yum. Let’s see if my kids will eat them this year…

These are gorgeous! My daughter has become a vegetarian, and this is not only the perfect dinner for us, but one I can task her with making! She is away for a week, so I may not wait for her to try them.
I imagine they are quite as good cold as well as hot from the oven.

Wow, we are seriously on the same page this week – I made rice stuffed tomatoes on a bed of potatoes on Saturday afternoon, following a years-old recipe I found over on Rachel Eats, and they were fine, but not great like I wanted them to be – the rice goes soaks in the tomato sauce first, but doesn’t actually get cooked, so some of it was a little too chewy for me. I just had another one for lunch and emailed my husband saying “you know, I think next time I’ll par-cook the rice and actually peel the potatoes.” and here you’ve gone and done it! Thanks for letting me know that this simple dish can be as delicious as I want them to be.

These look fantastic. We always had stuffed peppers growing up, so I have a fondness for rice and/or meat stuffed veggies (or fruits, if you’re being specific). Will definitely be trying this recipe out!

These look divine! I found a great white bean & basil-stuffed tomato recipe (I think on The Guardian’s website) a while back that I love, so I know I’d love these, too. Like you said, ripe summer tomatoes and rice are two of the best, simplest things.

More stuffed vegetables — Okay, I apparently stuff a lot of vegetables on this site. I got this post up in a hurry before (typical) and forgot to add a list at the end; I just did. Stuffed tomatoes and potatoes and eggplant and peppers and cabbage (twice) and even onions. Can’tstopwon’tstop.

Also — I added a little heads-up that I’m announcing another mini-book tour soon. I was supposed to get that announcement up today. I’m SLOW. And you’re all on vacation anyway, right?

Other grains — I have not tried this with brown rice or quinoa. You know I’m dying to with farro, because that’s my favorite with Italian food. In all cases, it’s really about the grain’s cooking time. Semi-pearled farro is comparable to arborio rice, so I wouldn’t adjust for it. Quinoa, I think, is less and may not need pre-cooking on the stove, though it makes it taster. It’s less likely to taste overcooked (right?) if it’s in the oven too long, though. Brown rice might take a few minutes longer than arborio. It’s up to you whether you’d add that on the stove or in the oven. Many, many stuffed tomato recipes are done entirely in the oven, baking the tomatoes for 1 to 1.5 hours, so it wouldn’t be weird. (I just prefer the risotto-y effect of doing it for a while on the stove.)

Sade — In cups, it would be 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon, which I does makes more sense (I’lll add that). However, I meant to add but the headnotes were getting lengthy enough, that I estimate 1 tablespoon rice per small tomato (but not mini, like grape or cherry, of course, just 2- to 3-inch across), 1 1/2 for each medium, and 2 for each large. So, that’s why I ended up writing it in tablespoons.

Stephk — No way! Great minds. I love Kristina’s cooking (and had no idea she was in Rome now!). And she includes the potatoes, yay, which is way more traditional. So, it looks like her version doesn’t include precooking the rice. You can totally do that here, too, but I love the risotto-y effect of parcooking the rice on the stovetop. It also reduces the baking time in the oven, which is nice if you’re on the fence about having your oven on in the summer. But, and this is one more thing I need to add to the already cluttered head notes, if you do the potato thing, you might find they need more than 30 minutes roasting time.

This looks great! I think I’m going to make it when we have people over for dinner on Wednesday. Would there be any reason I couldn’t do it all the night before, and then assemble and bake it before we eat? Thanks (for this and your wonderful site)!

It may not make it into the next tour, but please come to San Luis Obispo! Its warm, beautiful, and has a very inspiring local food culture. Plus, I missed the California tour by going to Seattle, and the Seattle visit by a few days!

This looks mouth wateringly delicious and you know what else? I bet it would make perfect picnic fare served at room temperature. I happen to have a friend coming to visit who is a vegetarian so your timing was just right for me as I trawl the internet for creative veggie recipes. Thank you!

This recipe is really interesting. After loathing the rice and tuna stuffed tomatoes served with a dollop of piped mayonnaise (makes you cringe I know) served at diners half my life, this idea of few, simple and seasonal ingredients is just what I needed to be able to begin to consider a stuffed tomato again! Nice.

I’ve been improvising variations on stuffed tomatoes for years (inc. versions stuffed with risotto/and equivalents), so let me say–you must try this (or one of its cousins) with GREEN TOMATOES. Superior, I would say, to stuffed red (ripe) tomatoes. (Green tomatoes, as in “unripe” or “less ripe,” not green as in “green zebra or other interesting heirloom.” Like peppers, tomatoes are members of the nightshade family; perhaps not surprisingly, both peppers and tomatoes are delicious at the “green” [less ripe] as well as “red” [riper] end of continuum–esp. but not only when cooked.) Really. Superior. Do a taste test…

I’ve got these baking in the oven right now–can’t wait til they’re done. The tomato-rice filling inspired me to try a riff on a BLT; next time, I’m making tomato risotto with pancetta and stirring in some arugula at the end. Thanks for the great ideas!

Made these tonight, for some reason had to much filling so I was obligated to eat it out of the skillet (partially cooked rice isn’t so bad) and couldn’t wait to pull them out of the oven. Forgot the basil so used it fresh on top and loved it. Baked slices of german cream potatoes in the dish with it …… mmmmmmmmm. My first thought was that I must try this with faro.

Thank you for a fabulous dinner inspiration! I had a cheesy Israeli couscous dish defrosting in my fridge and decided to use it in the filling. Added the couscous at the very end after the interior of the tomato had cooked down with water and a touch of white wine. Added fresh dill, cheeses and parsley to the couscous prior to stuffing. Satisfying and delicious.

This is the first year I’ve grown tomatoes, and I’m blown away by how great they taste! I’ve got a ton of tomatoes ripening, so I’m looking for all kinds of ways to cook them.

Tonight I tried a zucchini/tomato tart, and the flavors were good but the execution could use a little work. The juice from the tomatoes turned the bottom crust soggy (I knew it was going to happen but too lazy to troubleshoot lol) and I want to work on that.

I have to admit I’ve never been a fan of stuffed tomatoes…I totally recognized myself at the beginning of the post (and the crazy thing is that I’m Italian!!!) but you made these look so fresh, appealing and summer-y, so much so that I think I should give them a go :) I’ll let you know if your recipe changes my mind!

These look gorgeous! They remind me of both my grandmothers–one Italian and one Egyptian. My Italian nonna would make the most incredible tomato risotto, while my Egyptian teta would stuff tomatoes (mahshi) with rice that had been seasoned with a delicate blend of herbs and spices. Both were favorite dishes from my childhood, and this one seems like the perfect marriage of the two. Thank you for sharing–you’ve brought the biggest smile to my face :)

This is a typical greek summer dish. Every week is on the table and I have yet to meet one that doesn’t enjoy. But we stuff also in the same oven pan eggplants, bell peppers, zucchinis, vine leaves and zucchini flowers…mmmm…flavors all blend together deliciously.
I finelly chop lots of red onions, the insides of the vegetables (but the peppers),rice, some tomato paste,parsley,spearmint,one lemon juice, oregano,olive oil, salt and pepper and then stuff the vegetables and tightly place them in the pan.in betweens add cut potatoes. Add only olive oil and some salt and bake in the oven until all vegetables are tender and rice is done.

I’m making these tonight.
Let me know when you finally make it to Rome. I have some great restaurant recommendations for you. Thank you for the great recipes (especially buttermilk chicken which is now a staple).

@maria. It’s called a ‘summer cold’ having one in the summer is normal. I’m not being condescending. I used to dtuff veggies . With meat and rice. Well. .I didn’t actually do the stuffing ss I didn’t know how so my next door neighbour would come in and do it for me. She’s moved now :'( . Ok. Question time. Can I use persian rice? I have grapefruit spoons. Can they be used? I can’t bear herbs of any kind! Do you all live in the country? Lucky yous. I live in an apartment in a suburb of a city. My big sister lol won’t eat them. She doesn’t like hot tomatoes. Spicey yes. Does anyone have cats?

Found these just in time to make a nice anniversary dinner for my husband and kids. Made them last night after a quick trip to the ER with my clumsy toddler (nothing like celebrating your anniversary in the ER!), and they were a hit all around! Two year old son devoured an entire tomato bigger than the size of the lump on his head and asked for more, even. And, I just ate a leftover cold one for breakfast–yum. These are incredible. Thanks for coming through, yet again, Deb!

TerryB — I didn’t measure it because it will vary by tomato. But, theoretically, your tomato-rice mixture should fit back inside your tomatoes after parcooking, or 95% of it should, as you’re only putting in what you’ve taken out.

Vasun — I take photos for this site, or I do 99.95% of the time. However, there are two photos here with both my hands in them and they were taken by my husband.

A word to the wise for anyone using Brown Rice…Make sure the rice is almost cooked through before stuffing and baking.
Made these last night and cooked the rice on the stovetop for about 20-25 mins, and then in the oven for over 40 mins and the rice was still quite hard. It was still delicious and I know we’ll be making this again!

Funny that you made these. We just came back from Greece, where my relatives had these often for us. My husband asked for me to make them and it’s on the menu for tomorrow. Thanks for renewing my interest in making them! And definitely make them with the potatoes…they turn out wonderful together.

Oh I love stuffed tomatoes! My mom used to make them often. I love how versatile they are when you can play around with different fillings. Great idea to put rice in this recipe. Bookmarked it so I’ll try soon. Thanks for the recipe. Hope your summer was spectacular!

I am going to the farmers market this instant. These babies will be on the table tonight. I have an abundance of rosemary, oregano, chive blossoms and basil in my backyard, so this sure looks like dinner to me. Maybe with a butter lettuce salad and a crisp white unoaked Chardonnay! Thanks for the inspiration for dinner!

Just wanted to let you know how much I’m enjoying your blog since I discovered it. Your zeal for cooking and baking is infectious, and sometimes when I’m down I go to your blog just because it cheers me up somehow. So thank you for that.

Love Smitten Kitchen – especially the photographs. Thank you for the wonderful recipes. I love tomatoes and rice and will cook this recipe ASAP. Your blog is great and the photographs are a great addition to the recipes. Nice and simple and easy to understand!

Absolutely delicious and hearty! Loved it! I made risotto stuffed tomatoes and an eggplant that was due and discovered that tomatoes, just like zucchinis, eggplant and other perfect for stuffing goods can be easily emptied with a fork! (turning it with a corkscrew-like motion) This, of course, if like me, your kitchen is lacking most of the basic supplies. :)

These look like the nourishing, healthy comfort food. I’ve had plenty of stuffed peppers before, but never stuffed tomatoes. My husband and I are up to our ears in tomatoes. I think it’s time for us to try these!

These were absolutely delicious, beautiful and fun to make! However, the rice did not cook all the way through, even though I cooked them them plenty of liquid for a bit longer than this recipe says. I’d either make sure the rice is completely cooked before you stuff the tomatoes, or use a fast-cooking grain like couscous.

Madeline — I’ve never tried to freeze them. I hope that someone else who has tried it will pipe up and let you know. FWIW, my MIL freezes stuffed peppers and cabbage a lot. But I’m not positive that the tomato’s texture will hold up as well.

Just made these… actually, still cooking in the oven. But there was some leftover tomato-rice mixture that I’ve been helping myself to. Granted, rice a little undercooked like it’s supposed to be but it tastes soo good. I made mine extra spicy too! I can definitely see the tomato-rice mixture being a dish in itself!

Made this tonight and it totally exceeded all expectation! Tripled the garlic because I can’t help it and added a sprinkle of pecorino between scoops of rice and topped with panko. Had this surprisingly lemony garlicky spicy flavor that I basically would marry!! Totally ignored my family and ran to thank you Deb!

Perfect timing too! Your summer recipes (particularly so, this summer) seem to match exactly with what I have in my backyard! Especially since I went particularly crazy with the tomato planting this year. (And I do have a lot of tomatoes, in all the colors of the rainbow! Red, orange, yellow, purple, black, small, mini, large, heirloom. I have a lot of tomatoes!) I haven’t made your kale salad yet, but I am looking forward to it. =)

I followed the recipe to the ‘tee’…all the way to “Repeat again tomorrow.” Which is what I have done exactly. It’s so simple, and delicious. I thought I should sprinkle some cheese on it as well, but it’s not necessary. It tastes like pure warm comfort food in a cool summer day. I may still sprinkle some cheese the next time I make it, and just to taste the difference. And there will be a next time again!

I can’t believe anyone would think stuffed tomatoes are boring. In Greece it’s the favorite summer dish (‘gemista’ we call it and usually have stuffed green peppers as well) and it is the most delicious thing ever. I add minced veal in the filling which is also classic in Greece. This is my recipe if you want to take a look http://mylittleexpatkitchen.blogspot.nl/2012/08/the-gemista.html
Your version looks amazing Deb, very Italian :)

I just wanted to comment to let you know I made these last night and they were absolutely delicious! I was scouring the internet for a summery recipe and these popped into my inbox via bloglovin’ – it was meant to be! I was a bit worried that the rice would be terribly bland, especially with the supermarket tomatoes that were all I could get after work last night. However I needn’t have worried, the tomato flavour was incredible and shone through on its own like the summery star that it should be – thank you for convincing me that simple ingredients need no embellishment. I do have to confess to jazzing up the tops slightly, I smeared a lick of mustard across the top of the tomatoes and topped with a mixture of breadcrumbs and parmesan before drizzingly liberally with olive oil. Lovely – thank you for a wonderful recipe.

I made these last night and they took me right back to my time in Greece. I had a dish called Yemista while travelling through the country and it was the best thing I’ve ever eaten. This was a very close duplicate. Make sure you use good quality cold-pressed olive oil! Makes all the difference! I also sprinkled a pinch of sugar in the bottom of the tomatoes before stuffing them to combat the acidity. Loved the idea of using arborio rice, it came out beautifuly.

Shaundi — The blender will leave the seeds in (so will a food mill, unless you’re using very small holes, which I never bother with). However, if you don’t like tomato seeds, you can then push it through a finer-mesh strainer. However, I usually don’t like seeds in tomato sauce but never notice them here.

Elle — I have the OXO food mill. It’s very good. I almost never use it; the Internet told me I couldn’t make baby food without it several years ago so I bought it in a mama-panic and proceeded to just use the food processor most of the time, finding the hand-cranking tiresome. However, for tomatoes and the like, it’s unquestionably better and I’m very happy with how this has worn (i.e. not at all, and all the parts are dishwasher-safe).

I had to comment about the laws of toddler eating. My 4 year old, unlike your little one, will not touch rice (or rice-adjacent foods), onions, or tomatoes (except in the form of pasta sauce). Last night I made your one-pot farro and tomatoes, and despite her better instincts she deigned to try a bite. And loved it. She and my 15 month old actually both ate so much of it that I no longer have the leftovers that I was going to save for lunch today. Go figure.

I made these last night and WOW! They really are a delicious and light side or even full meal. I did notice there wasn’t going to be quite enough liquid to cook the rice once I through it in the pan, so I just added a splash of dry white wine before adding the tomato and it was perfect. I can’t wait to play around with this recipe. You did not disappoint!

Also, I was wary of the tomato seeds, but once I put the tomato filling through some pulses on my hand blender I didn’t even see the seeds anymore, and definitely didn’t notice them at all in the final dish.

These look amazing, and since I have tons of tomatoes about to ripen the timing was perfect. I just picked up your cookbook recently and the recipes are amazing! It’s turned into a coffee table book as well, because we can’t stop looking at all the gorgeous photos.

Made these last night! Love dinners I can make entirely from stuff in the garden + random bag of arborio rice kicking around in the pantry. They were really excellent. The tablespoon of rice per 2-inch-across tomato was just right, and i loved how scaleable this was as a result. The rice was super flavourful and summery and exciting and you could really taste the fresh herbs. I have to admit i quintupled the garlic though — no regrets. A+. I really don’t think they need meat or cheese or other additions!

I just attempted these with short grain brown rice and potatoes and sausages in the pan. I would NOT recommend using short grain brown rice. The potatoes and sausages were done after about an hour of cooking (I got desperate after 30 min and cranked it up to 400 and turned my convection on), and the rice is still al dente after 2 hours in the oven. Ay. I think the flavors are great, but will try a different rice next time.

Deb, is there an amount of liquid per 9T rice that we should be aiming for? I’m imagining that my tomatoes will vary from yours in terms of the amount of puree/juice I’m able to extract. Is there something like a 2:1 puree/rice ratio that I should try to attain, or is winging it perfectly safe?

allison — I don’t look at the liquid as much as the tomato size. So, for tomatoes the size I suggested (medium-large, 3″ across or an average of 8 1/4 ounces), I use 1 1/2 tablespoons of rice per tomato. Smaller, I’d use 1 tablespoon (which is a common recommendation in Italian stuffed tomato recipes, but I think our “average” tomatoes here are bigger), for bigger ones, I’d use 2. It works almost every time.

Impossibly good, even with the leftover brown rice that I used instead of the risotto — I just let the tomato/rice simmer uncovered to get rid of extra moisture. Served them with a plain omelet and steamed runner beans for summer’s most colorful plate.

Someone else may have mentioned this, but I couldn’t help being reminded of the Greek version of stuffed veges. Very similar… add a tonne of chopped flat leaf parsley, mint, dill, a chopped onion, lots of olive oil, salt, pepper, and a couple of tbsp of tomato paste to rinsed (but uncooked) short grain rice (you can also use basmati). Mix, stuff tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and vine leaves (if you have them) and bake in the oven for an hour or so (with a little water in the bottom of the baking tray, cover with vine leaves or tin foil). No need to par-cook the rice beforehand, and much tastier!

I was very hungry and ate the lids of my tomatoes. This left them a little drier than I expected so next time I might compensate with a more liquid risotto going into the oven. I also had small tomatoes and now have some delicious leftover stuffing which I will have for lunch today.

It reminds me of your tomato and sausage risotto! That might be a good way to use up those leftovers, though this isn’t a time-consuming recipe. Thanks for another great one!

just writing to say I made this with the potatoes last night – it was delicious but the potatoes did add abt 30 minutes or more of cooking time. Maybe parboiling them would help reduce the cooking time, but that adds an extra step.

Wonderful recipe, Deb! The tomatoes were like little bowls of summer. I modified your recipe slightly by using both tomatoes and zucchini (I have so many of both to use up!) as the “containers,” hollowing them both out and pureeing their “guts” together to get an equal amount of the liquid you denoted in the recipe. I then proceeded in the same way. It turned out just great and the two stuffed vegetables together made a beautiful presentation.

Deb, I love your writing. Every single thing you say has me hooked, eyes wide and tummy rumbling. And all those compatible ingredients you mentioned? My favorites! Showing this recipe to the hubby ASAP- thank you for continuing to inspire all of us :)

Yum! Made this last night with couscous, since that’s what I had on hand. I pretty much let the couscous cook in the liquid, since it only takes a few minutes. Love how flexible this recipe is. Even my tomato-hating husband enjoyed it. I added potatoes, but they unfortunately were not completely cooked by the time the tomatoes were done. So I scooped out the finished tomatoes and left the potatoes in for another 30 minutes. But they were delicious when done! Next time, I’ll probably parboil the potatoes first.

Delicious! If it’s at all possible, it’s worth it to go out of the way for the best tomatoes you can find. I made four stuffed tomatoes and ate the left-over filling with a fried egg on top the next day. Sad to see August on its way out!

Thank you, thank you… I once read a blogger-Divina Cucina an American who lives in Tuscany and she did something similar but didn’t parboil the rice. It was ok, but the rice was still tough. I still love her site! I amdefinitely going to try this AND I have some new potatoes to use and will add them as well. Now that was something I wouldn’t have considered!

Prefect. I made a version from your original recipe and added fresh corn taken off the cob, a minced Jalapeno instead of the red pepper flakes (we are in Texas after all) and topped with shaved Parmesan. They were AWESOME. Thanks so much for the inspiration.

I only had brown rice in the pantry and I just *needed* to make these tonight. They are in the oven now, so I will let you know how the brown rice turns out. I did cook it first just in case. They look divine!

Wow. Love the simplicity of this; so refreshing not to have to hunt out special ingredients.
Will definitely try…and like Marc’s idea of parmesan on top, maybe will go parmesan/
breadcrumb mix. Thanks.

Delicious! I stuffed peppers instead of tomatoes and only used the tomato flesh in the rice because only our small garden tomatoes are ripe now and I couldn’t bring myself to use store bought. Followed the rest of the recipe and my husband, a die-hard rice lover, inhaled it and said it was the best rice I’ve ever made him. Next time, per his request, I’ll crumble some raw (humane grass-fed OF COURSE!) chicken sausage into the rice mixture before baking, even if just for him. I thought about that this time but didn’t want to get too creative the first time I made it.

Made these Tuesday and they were yummy… ripe Ontario field tomatoes, fresh herbs from my garden. I had to use basmati rice as I was fresh out of arborio…it was still tasty but arborio would have been better. Keep ’em coming Deb!

This was delicious! Maybe this is gilding the lily, but I had some evaporated milk around, and I added a splash of it to the filling to make it a sort of tomato-cream sauce. Yum! I also chopped up a leftover roasted pepper and added it to the filling. And I used basil as my herb.

The rice didn’t get any softer in the oven, so I’m glad I let it cook fully before I stuffed the tomatoes.

Scooping the tomatoes out was pretty tedious and imprecise with a spoon, but it was much easier when I started using an ice cream scoop. (Mine has a little bit of an edge.)

Made these tonight, I tweaked them a bit. I knew my husband would never eat them if I cook in the oven. I used left over brown rice from last night and reheated a bit, served in the tomatoes raw. He loved it!!!! I held my breath while he tried it…I’m still in shock. THANK YOU!

I’ve been craving tomatoes like crazy and bought one of each color from the farmer’s market this week, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with them. A salad was too boring. Sliced and salted/peppered was delicious, but also last week’s news. This recipe sounds perfect. Preserving the fresh, amazing taste of in-season tomatoes while adding substance with the rice. Can’t wait to eat this for lunch tomorrow. !

I was about to make a Bittman recipe for stuffed tomatoes when I remembered that you had one! I used your recipe with a tip from Bittman; cut the tomato on the smooth end and let the stem end be the stable base. It worked great but I had to inform my guests so they didn’t eat the stem. (I think my husband ate it and is okay!) Served with amazingly fresh corn for another awesome SK dinner!

I made these pretty much the day after you posted the recipe – they looked soooooo good!

I did substitute quinoa (a mix of red and black, cause it’s prettier), for the rice so that I wouldn’t have to worry about finding a protein source. And it was DELICIOUS! Plus, the filling mixture (I had a bunch of leftovers after stuffing the tomatoes) works really well as a chilled salad, with crumbled goat cheese.

Oh, and I took your “cube potatoes and roast them along with the tomatoes” advice, but I used a mix of regular and sweet potatoes. And it was marvellous.

These jewels have been the highlight of my summer treats. So delicious. They were also great reheated the next day. AND… I used the leftover stuffing, with the leftover potatoes, the day after that with bits and pieces of other leftovers (BBQchicken and grilled zucchini) added before finishing that cooking time in a bowl in the microwave. Again delicious. So three meals from one prep, which is always nice in the summer. Thank you Deb for your consistently wonderful recipes and fun to read stories.

Made these last night with tomatoes from my garden. The hardest thing was to find tomatoes small enough. I did basil and mozzarella cubes with the rice mix. They were better than I would think. Thanks again for a great recipe! It’s always great to find new tomato recipes this time of year. Last Saturday I canned 25 jars of tomatoes for the Winter months. It took most of the day but it will be worth it in the months to come! Safe and happy trip to England!

Thanks Deb! Great recipe- I’m currently making this recipe for the second time but for a cookout tomorrow night. Do you have any recs for doing ahead? My plan is to just make them as above and then just take out of the fridge to acclimate them for 30 minutes or so and then pop into a 350 oven to warm. I just don’t want to turn them to mush.

These were amazing! As I cook for one I scaled down the recipe a bit and only made two.I threw in some goat cheese at the end and that really put it over the top! I made a bit too much rice but enjoyed it the next day with tilapia. They were hearty but still summery and seem very adaptable. Scooping the tomatoes was much easier than I anticipated! Can’t wait to try again with some sliced mushrooms and spinach added to the mix!

Made and DEVOURED these tonight. They were excellent. Added a little grated parmesan to the rice, along with basil and chives. Thought that small pieces of mozzarella would also be delicious next time. (Yes, already planning for the next time we make these.)

Also, so very happy for another way to use our abundant CSA tomatoes. Thanks, Deb!

I think I scooped out too much and left my tomatoes’ skin too thin, since they practically caved in when I removed them from the pan. Still, good, but next time I want to try this recipe with fewer substitutions– I didn’t have the correct rice on hand, and I tried to halve the recipe.The rice itself was quite good before I even put it into the tomatoes, so maybe I will try the rice alone next time? A very summery side dish, and I will try it again.

Made this for dinner tonight; so yummy! Next time I’ll cook the rice a tad bit longer, as it was still quite al dente. I used both orange and red tomatoes, and loved how pretty they looked alternating in the baking dish. I highly recommend serving this with corn. It’s a match made in late-summer heaven. I cut the kernels off the cobs and sauteed em in browned butter, with a sprinmouth! salt. The best bites were when I mixed the corn with the rice/tomatoes — it’s like a flavor party in your mouth!

Hi Deb, I substituted brown rice and of course did not parboil it enough. After 1 hour of baking, rice is still raw (by the way, delicious even raw which is a testament to how delicious they are, it is a great recipe!) Is there any way to save the dish? Google is of no help. i have tried adding boiling water to the tomatoes, increasing temperature, nothing helps. Not sure if you have any tips. Thank you so much!

Problem solved:) The key to finishing off the rice if still raw is covering it tightly with foil. Not ideal for getting a crisp top but solved the rawness issue. Hope someone will benefit in the future if using tough grains like brown rice. Thank you so much for all of your work, b’shaa tova!

This was so good. We have an amazing crop of tomatoes this year and this is perfect

I made it with the bed of roast potatoes and this is where I’d make a change. My potatoes never got golden brown or fully cooked (despite them being cut quite small) in the time it took to cook the tomatoes. Next time ( and there WILL be a next time) I will put the potatoes into a hotter oven while I prep the rice and then set the tomatoes inside and lower the temperature.

spectacular. Always. I only used 4 tomatoes, but the weight was about the same so I didn’t change anything else. Used all basil for the herbs, stirred in some tiny cubes of mozzarella, topped with breadcrumbs. My apartment smells like heaven.

I made these tonight – heaven! I didn’t follow the recipe exactly and they still came out great. I used orzo instead of rice because that’s what I had on hand. I also didn’t have any fresh garlic so I added just a bit of garlic powder to the onions instead, and I left out the red pepper flakes and the fresh herbs. I crumbled a little feta cheese over the top the last few minutes of cooking. Amazing! I am half greek and grew up eating stuffed peppers and tomatoes with ground meet and rice, but I liked these so much better. The orzo came out like the purest and best manestra (greek orzo with tomato sauce) I’ve ever had. Thanks so much!

Just wanted to make an additional comment- I really really liked using every part of the tomato except the seeds- the tomato purée is spot on and gives these stuffed tomatoes a rich addictive quality- love this recipe- thanks

Bought some use-these-right-away-dead-ripe tomatoes at a farm stand on the way home from the shore. Didn’t have any fresh herbs at home, used a little dried Mexican oregano instead. Zowie, were they good! And that red pepper flake addition is the show stopper! This is what a call a “keeper” recipe. Thank you.

Wow. Sorry I didn’t see this recipe until late in tomato season. These are delicious. My rice-averse husband devoured two. I did add a small amount of Parmesan to the rice mixture, but not sure it was a necessary addition. These will be in heavy rotation next summer.

There is a blogger, Divina Cucina – Judy Witts, who has a beautiful cookbook: Secrets from my Tuscan kitchen. She has this recipe, but I don’t remember her parboiling the rice. My stove temp is always iffy, so my rice never cooked fully. I am going to try your method this weekend, because the concept sounds wonderful. Check out her blog(beautiful Italian photos) and cookbook if you haven’t already. Thanks.

This was SO GOOD. I used up the last of our CSA heirloom tomatoes. Their outer walls were a little thinner than the tomatoes shown in Deb’s pictures, so they fell apart more but were still delicious. I also deseeded and chopped some of the tomato innards and threw it in with the rice. Didn’t have basil, so skipped.

Topped with a mixture of organic garlic powder (Costco), kosher salt, panko breadcrumbs, and grated romano. Drizzled with olive oil and came out a little before 30 min.

The rice alone was delicious. This has inspired me to try making a tomato risotta using the tomato juice that’s leftover when canning crushed tomatoes.

I made this towards the end of the summer using the rest of the tomatoes from my sparse city garden. I had a lot of extra rice so I used some green peppers from the garden and stuffed those with the rest of the rice as well. So happy I used all the rice because this meal was a huge hit!

I was just dreaming of these but couldn’t remember where I got the recipe from. It must be some great Karma!
Everyone make these NOW! I absolutely love tomatoes so am somewhat easy to please with anything “tomato” but when I served these to my meat loving family they devoured them and told me the recipe was a keeper. Seriously, they are delicious!

We made this tonight… so amazing! We did not use meat, and honestly did not miss it. As suggested, we roasted potatoes (whole, baby/new) during the 30min bake time. We tried to follow the recipe closely and it worked out great, but I think a simpler way to list the ingredients is to simply say you will need as much tomato-gut puree as the amount of liquid called for to cook the arborio rice (or slightly less liquid would be okay.) For example, I think it would work if you have a dozen tomatoes, measure your liquid from the guts, and use half that amount of dry rice. Increase onion and garlic accordingly. We will be making this again!

I made this tonight, using tomatoes from my garden and a friend’s garden. It was great! I agree with other comments that the potatoes could have used more time in the oven; they were slightly harder than perfect. But hey, the assembled tomatoes were terrific! Thanks, Deb!

Rice-tomato mixture was dry after the simmer before the final bake…scared of crunchy rice, I drizzled some water over top of filled tomatoes and covered the whole pan during the bake. I am excited to taste these, hope they turn out!

Made this last night and it was a big hit. I’ll definitely make it again when it is tomato season, because it is worthy of the best tomatoes possible. The only difference will be that I will measure out the liquid, since the juiciness of tomatoes is kind of variable. I had to add a bit of crushed tomatoes thinned with a bit of water and put about 2 T more liquid after 45 minutes baking. Very tasty, though.

I used 4 tomatoes and reduced the rice accordingly but i don’t think I had quite enough liquid, i ended up adding about 1/3 cup of water. It tasted great, clean and fresh. I will for sure keep making it throughout tomatoe season! Yum!

I learned from an Elizabeth Minchelli version of these to scoop the tomatoes out with a melon baller, which took way less time than a knife and spoon and also made it easy to decide how much wall to leave.
Although the first time I made these they were marvelous, I tried some other Minchelli stepdad which I also adored. In her recipe instead of cooking the rice in the sauce you just soak it in the innards plus some olive oil for 1 1/2 hours.
I did Brown the onions and rice before soaking, and I liked the result
Equally , and it was easier .

Made this tonight. I had to adapt a little for two people and for what we had on hand.
* Half farro and half white rice (not arborio, because we didn’t have any) to comprise 1/2 cup total.
* Created “shells” from two tomatoes from our garden, each 8 ounces.
* To the pulp from the two tomato shells, I added the the pulp of two smaller tomatoes (5-ish ounces each) to make more juice and pureed all of it with a stick blender.
* Sauted onion, garlic, and pepper flakes as directed, then toasted the farro-rice blend as directed. Added a bit more than 1 cup pureed tomato pulp. Simmered as directed.
* Used a combination of bread crumbs and finely grated Parm on top, because we already had that on hand from a different recipe. (Probably could have used less rice/farro and less juice, but the leftovers will make an excellent lunch with arugula.)
* Coated a 13×9 with a touch of olive oil, then added a couple Italian sausages, and small patty pan squash tossed in herbs and olive oil, as well as a handful of long beans we had pulled from the garden. Tucked the stuffed tomatoes into that array to hold them up, put them in a 400-degree oven (to roast the sausages better) and sat on the patio with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

I’m trying to make these, and am using a short grain brown rice. They’ve been in the oven for over an hour and the rice is still crunchy! How can I get the rice to cook?! The sauce I can taste is incredible and I’m dying to eat these ASAP.

Yes, the rice should have been parcooked before it went in. But short grain brown rice is definitely going to take longer. Keep baking it; it will eventually cook (unless it was really old or stale, but it probably wasn’t).

I added a bit of water, covered them, and continued baking. The rice did eventually cook (and silly me for not thinking through that the brown rice would take longer!) though the tomatoes disintegrated…they were still delicious, though :)

I made these and they were delicious! My boyfriend said they had a pizza vibe. A tip I learned for scooping out the tomato is to use a 1/4 tsp metal measuring spoon and it works great. I did roast a potato with the tomatoes which I boiled for 10 minutes before placing in the oven and they too came out perfect. Thank you Deb.